I can easily get 240 miles on a full tank in my 84. But when the gauge is
at the halfway marker, the odo shows around 90 miles. The fuel gauge drops
more slowly after that, so middle to bottom of the red is 240 or so miles.

90 miles above the halfway tick, 150 miles below it. Not very linear.

Who designs these things?

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR

On 10/18/2009 8:29 PM Steve Williams wrote:

> I ran my '84 Westy out of gas today, thank goodness within walking
> distance of a gas station.
>
> I knew the fuel was low, but the gauge was still well above the red
> band, and I've driven more miles on a tank.  I was running errands
> and decided to complete just one more task before filling up.
>
> I put 16.1 gallons into the 16-gallon tank.  The van got 19.0 mpg on
> this tank, so that's pretty normal.
>
> The question is: Why didn't the gauge dip into the red, as it always
> has before?
>
> A clue: The gauge didn't budge when I poured a 2-gallon gas can into the
> tank.
>
> When the engine died, I was sure it was because I had depleted the
> battery.  I'm the guy that keeps posting to the list about the low
> voltage from my alternator.  But that wasn't the problem this time.
>